Coastal commission digs into Sand City resort project

Santa Barbara >> A controversial Sand City beach front resort began its third go-round before the California Coastal Commission on Wednesday, with arguments over a threatened shorebird, building views and beach erosion.

The panel, armed with more than 700 pages of staff reports and correspondence on the proposed Monterey Bay Shores Resort, kicked off an unusual procedure that could bounce between the commission's meeting room and a state Court of Appeals.

Developer Ed Ghandour, who first applied for project permission in 1998, won two court cases to force his proposal twice back before the commission — the second time this week.

"It's a very significant issue. It is going to take a long time," said commission Chairman Steve Kinsey, a Marin County supervisor.

After nearly four hours of testimony, the commission waded into a series of preliminary votes on project conditions. "It may seem tedious," Kinsey said.

Though the project has been around for two decades, 11 of the 12 current commissioners weren't part of the panel's earlier denials.

The project, which has drawn fire from several environmental and wildlife groups, proposes 184 hotel rooms, 184 condominiums, swimming pools, underground parking, restaurants, a spa and restored dunes on part of a 40-acre former sand mining site.

Under a settlement between Ghandour and the commission staff after the developer won a San Francisco Superior Court case, the project returned to the commission under an unusual process. If Ghandour accepts conditions favored by the commission, the state coastal panel could decide to drop a pending court appeal and take a vote on the project permit later in the week.

While the commission staff recommended approval with several conditions, Ghandour contends those terms are at odds with the settlement.

In a staff report, Central Coast Director Dan Carl said some proposed conditions were different, but they were not major differences.

He said the staff recommendation — which the settlement required to support the project, though the commission has full discretion — would allow "most aspects of the proposed project."

Several commissioners said they had individual meetings with Ghandour representatives who expressed major disagreements with conditions on views and beach erosion.

He said the project, in its current iteration, was "smaller and lower" to make it less visible. "We can't make this project disappear," he said.

Kaufman said a staff proposal to require removal of resort buildings if beach erosion moves within 50 feet was "not based on fact."

Andrea Jones of the National Audubon Society said the project would reduce nesting grounds for the threatened western snowy plover. The group said a snowy plover nest with two eggs was found Tuesday in the project area.

Kaufman said the project site would leave snowy plover areas alone and accused opponents of trying to mislead the commission.

A Sierra Club representative, labeling the project "preposterous," called for the commission to require a habitat conservation plan for snowy plovers.

Several supporters praised the hotel-resort as a sterling example of an environmentally sensitive, world-class project with a one-of-a-kind design to blend with the dunes.

Sand City Mayor Dave Pendergrass said the city has a right "to reasonable development." Even with two proposed coastal resorts, he said, 80 percent of the city coastline would be undisturbed.

Rebecca Barrymore of Pacific Grove said the project would "set a high bar" for eco-friendly development and be an economic driver for green businesses.

The debate over the Sand City resort also played out in several hundreds pages of letters and emails.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressed concern about the project's impact on the western snowy plover and the bird's critical habitat. So did the state Parks and Recreation Department.

Several groups registered opposition and concerns about the project, including the Surfers' Environmental Alliance, Landwatch Monterey County, Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra Club and Audubon California.

Monterey County Assessor Stephen Vagnini wrote in support of the project, saying it would transform a blighted area to "an ecologically sensitive coastal habitat."

Several people sent emails to the commission, urging the panel to reject the project.

"This mega-hotel-condo," wrote Alyssa Cathcart of Aliso Viejo, "represents almost everything the Coastal Act was created to prevent."